Philip W. Rosenkranz

AIRS/AMSU/HSB on the Aqua mission: design, science objectives, data products, and processing systems

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU), and the Humidity Sounder for Brazil (HSB) form an integrated cross-track scanning temperature and humidity sounding system on the Aqua satellite of the Earth Observing System (EOS). AIRS is an infrared spectrometer/radiometer that covers the 3.7-15.4-/spl mu/m spectral range with 2378 spectral channels. AMSU is a 15-channel microwave radiometer operating between 23 and 89 GHz. HSB is a four-channel microwave radiometer that makes measurements between 150 and 190 GHz. In addition to supporting the National Aeronautics and Space Administrations interest in process study and climate research, AIRS is the first hyperspectral infrared radiometer designed to support the operational requirements for medium-range weather forecasting of the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administrations National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) and other numerical weather forecasting centers. AIRS, together with the AMSU and HSB microwave radiometers, will achieve global retrieval accuracy of better than 1 K in the lower troposphere under clear and partly cloudy conditions. This paper presents an overview of the science objectives, AIRS/AMSU/HSB data products, retrieval algorithms, and the ground-data processing concepts. The EOS Aqua was launched on May 4, 2002 from Vandenberg AFB, CA, into a 705-km-high, sun-synchronous orbit. Based on the excellent radiometric and spectral performance demonstrated by AIRS during prelaunch testing, which has by now been verified during on-orbit testing, we expect the assimilation of AIRS data into the numerical weather forecast to result in significant forecast range and reliability improvements.

Water vapor microwave continuum absorption: A comparison of measurements and models

Measurements, made in different laboratories, of absorption by water vapor in microwave windows are compared with models for the water vapor continuum. A reanalysis of some of these measurements leads to the conclusion that the laboratory data are best represented by a combination of Liebes [1987] millimeter-wave propagation model (MPM) for the foreign-broadened component of the water continuum and the 1993 version of MPM for the self-broadened component. This combined model is validated by comparison with measurements of atmospheric microwave emission.

AIRS: Improving Weather Forecasting and Providing New Data on Greenhouse Gases

Abstract The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and its two companion microwave sounders, AMSU and HSB were launched into polar orbit onboard the NASA Aqua Satellite in May 2002. NASA required the sounding system to provide high-quality research data for climate studies and to meet NOAAs requirements for improving operational weather forecasting. The NOAA requirement translated into global retrieval of temperature and humidity profiles with accuracies approaching those of radiosondes. AIRS also provides new measurements of several greenhouse gases, such as CO2, CO, CH4, O3, SO2, and aerosols. The assimilation of AIRS data into operational weather forecasting has already demonstrated significant improvements in global forecast skill. At NOAA/NCEP, the improvement in the forecast skill achieved at 6 days is equivalent to gaining an extension of forecast capability of six hours. This improvement is quite significant when compared to other forecast improvements over the last decade. In addition to NCEP, ECM...

Retrieval of temperature and moisture profiles from AMSU-A and AMSU-B measurements

The NOAA-15 weather satellite carries the Advanced Microwave Sounding Units-A and -B (AMSU-A, AMSU-B) which measure thermal emission from an atmospheric oxygen band, two water lines, and several window frequencies. An iterated minimum-variance algorithm retrieves profiles of temperature and humidity in the atmosphere from this data. Relative humidity is converted into absolute humidity with use of the retrieved temperature profile. Two important issues in the retrieval problem are modeling of the surface and clouds. An a priori surface emissivity is computed on the basis of a preliminary classification, and the surface brightness spectrum is subsequently adjusted simultaneously with the moisture profile retrieval. Cloud liquid water is constrained by a condensation model that uses an extended definition of relative humidity as a parameter.

Rapid radiative transfer model for AMSU/HSB channels

The atmospheric transmittance model for the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-A (AMSU-A) and the Humidity Sounder for Brazil (HSB) channels on the Aqua spacecraft uses a polynomial approximation to the temperature dependence of oxygen-band opacity within atmospheric layers. It uses lookup tables to calculate local water-vapor line intensity and pressure-broadening parameters as well as contributions to absorption from the water-vapor continuum, distant lines, and cloud liquid water. The algorithm includes water-line self-broadening and the magnetic-field effect on AMSU-A channel 14. The microwave surface emission model is based on a preliminary classification of the surface type, with subsequent adjustments to the emissivity spectrum that are obtained from the retrieval algorithm. A simple approximate correction for surface nonspecularity is included. The algorithm has been tested by comparisons to a line-by-line calculation and to measurements made by the NOAA-15 AMSU-A.

Rough-sea microwave emissivities measured with the SSM/I

The combination of sea surface roughness and whitewater causes a change in emissivity from an undisturbed sea surface. Previous measurements of this effect have covered the frequency range 1-37 GHz. The seven-channel SSM/I (Special Sensor Microwave/Imager) on the Block 5D-2 spacecraft extends this range to 85.5 GHz, at a fixed viewing angle of 53 degrees from normal. To correct for atmospheric attenuation, vapor and liquid water in the atmosphere and surface wind speed were simultaneously estimated from the 22.2 GHz vertically polarized and the 37.0 GHz dual-polarized channels. Data with liquid water burden in excess of 0.07 kg/m/sup 2/ were excluded. In the horizontally polarized measurements, the wind-speed sensitivity of emissivity at 85.5 GHz was greater than at 37.0 GHz by a factor of approximately 1.4. For vertical polarization at 85.5 GHz, the sensitivity was much smaller than for horizontal polarization, and somewhat smaller than for vertical polarization at 37 GHz. >

Radiative transfer solution using initial values in a scattering and absorbing atmosphere with surface reflection

The radiative transfer equation in a planar-stratified atmosphere with multiple scattering is solved by numerically integrating an ensemble of trial functions which are constructed so as to satisfy the boundary conditions (downward-propagating radiances) at the top of the atmosphere. The boundary conditions at the surface (reflection or scattering) are imposed after integration through the atmosphere. Opaque atmospheres constitute a special case of the latter boundary condition. The algorithm is very efficient because it requires solution, only once, of a set of linear equations of rank equal to half the number of radiation streams.

Statistical iterative scheme for estimating atmospheric relative humidity profiles

Estimation of atmospheric relative humidity profiles using passive remote sensing techniques is difficult when the temperature profile is not well known, and such retrievals approach singularity when the atmosphere is nearly isothermal. A retrieval method that is more robust near isothermal regions and temperature inversions is described. Its robust character results from an iterative combination of statistical methods based on a priori data, which stabilize the effects of any singularities, and physical methods that reflect the nonlinear character of the equation of radiative transfer and the dependence of measurements on uncertain surface reflectivities and temperature profiles. This method can be used to interpret data from meteorological satellites. It was tested extensively using simulated clear-sky microwave observations from space at 89 GHz, 166 GHz, and three frequencies near the 183-GHz water vapor resonance and the 60-GHz oxygen band, which is sensitive to the atmospheric temperature profile. Humidity profiles from the tropical, midlatitude, and arctic regions were retrieved. Relative humidity profiles retrieved using the statistical iterative method typically had errors between 5 and 10% in the 300-1000 mbar pressure region. These errors were somewhat less in the tropics and greater in the polar regions, and represented significantly better performances than a linear statistical retrieval method. >

Observations of thermal and precipitation structure in a tropical cyclone by means of passive microwave imagery near 118 GHz

Abstract An imaging microwave radiometer with eight double-sideband channels centered on the 118-GHz oxygen resonance was flown on a high-altitude aircraft over a tropical cyclone in the Coral Sea. The measurements clearly resolved an eyewall of strong convection and a warm core within the eye. Brightness temperatures observed within the eye were approximately 10 K warmer than those observed in clear air 100 km or more away. This warming extended somewhat beyond the eyewall in the highest (most opaque) channel. The temperature profile in the eye, central pressure, and convective cell-top altitudes are inferred from the data.

A rapid atmospheric transmittance algorithm for microwave sounding channels

A rapid transmittance algorithm for NOAAs Advanced Microwave Sounding Units A and B and possible future instruments has been devised. Window channels, water vapor channels, and oxygen-band channels are considered separately; each uses tabular or polynomial approximations to line-wing or near-line absorption from water vapor or oxygen as appropriate. Absorption by cloud liquid water is also included. For oxygen-band channels that sound the atmosphere above 40 km, water vapor and clouds are not significant, but Zeeman splitting produced by the terrestrial magnetic field is. Because magnetic field strength varies over the Earth, channels within the Zeeman region use an algorithm in which transmittance is parameterized as a function of magnetic field strength B add angle /spl theta//sub B/ (with respect to the direction of propagation) at a frequency resolution of B 2.22 kHz//spl mu/T; then the average over channel passbands is done on-line. In tests, the rapid algorithm required thirty times less computation than a line-by-line algorithm, and reproduced the line-by-line calculation of brightness temperatures with accuracy comparable to or better than the channel sensitivities. >